On Emigration, Social Mobility, and the Transfer of Capital

ON EMIGRATION, SOCIAL MOBILITY,
AND THE TRANSFER OF CAPITAL
LARS LJUNGMARK
In the very idea of emigration lies the hope of a better life,
whether in a political, cultural, social, family, or economic sense. In
the debate on the background to the emigration that took place in
Sweden during the period of the great migration various of these
factors were brought to the fore.
"Thousands have gone into voluntary exile because of the
un-Christian intolerance and persecuting zeal of the Swedish
priesthood," claimed a man from Södermanland who had emi­grated
to Minnesota in 1882.
"His dream was to sail to that land out west, where no kings or
priests rule one's life as a pest." Thus the class background to
Petter's emigration was presented in the popular song, "Petter
Jönsson's Journey to America" ( " P e t t e r Jönssons resa till A m e r i k a ")
from 1872.
"Poor wages were not the only reason I left Sweden. The long
period of military service haunted me like a ghost and gave a dark
outlook for the future." In this way a man from Jämtland described
his decision to emigrate.
"The political immaturity of the period drove me here. . . . Here
everybody is entitled to his full share, is of legal age, and has a vote
at twenty-one," stated a man who had left Värmland in 1905,
making lack of a vote the reason for his determination to emigrate.1
Contemporary views of the importance of religious persecution,
class barriers, military conscription, and political disenfranchise¬
ment as factors behind the mass emigration from Sweden have not
been borne out by research. They have, at most, been credited as
contributory causes, compared with the altogether dominant
economic factors. The economic situation of the Swedish agricul­tural
and industrial labor force, and the social conditions that
resulted in both rural and urban areas, underlay the emigration,
together with the economic and social aspirations associated with
the great land across the Atlantic.
How, then, did things go for the emigrants? Did they achieve the
economic and social advancement they had hoped for? Or—as
155
many opponents of emigration foretold and perhaps hoped as
well—did things turn out badly for them? Is it possible that a biased
documentation, consisting of letters from America and the accounts
given by visiting Swedish Americans, has given us in Sweden a
false picture, one dominated by the Swedish Americans who
succeeded, while all those who were less fortunate or even
ultimately went under, remain invisible?
What follows here deals with the results of emigration research
concerning social mobility among the emigrants, or its inability to
reach firm conclusions in this regard. Since approximately one-fifth
of the emigrants eventually returned permanently to Sweden, it is
natural also to take up the situation of the remigrants after their
return. The transfer of capital from Swedish America to Sweden
likewise deserves consideration here.
The b a c k g r o u n d of d i s c o n t e n t to which research has so often
attributed emigration—most generally of an economic nature-inspired
in many the clear hope of social advancement in the
United States. The alleged characteristic attitude among the emigrants,
with its strong emphasis upon a higher standard of living, ought
likewise to have created a positive background for social success in
the new land, especially for those emigrating because the social
advancement they had gained in Sweden was threatened. In both
respects, however, research has only been able to confirm the desire
for social advancement among the emigrants; it has not in most
cases been able to determine the degree to which their hopes were
fulfilled.2
The social aspirations which the p i o n e e r s of t h e e m i g r a t i on
associated with emigration have been revealed, as well as the ways
in which these were met. Above all this was the case with farmers
who sold their farms in Sweden and obtained better farms in the
American Middle West. The part played by the Homestead Law of
1862, which made available to settlers 160 acres of free government
land, as the means of social advancement for poor Swedish
emigrants has also been studied.3
Other early emigrants with a strong desire for social improve­ment
who have been given attention include seamen from Öland and
migrants to t h e California gold fields. To what extent they realized their
hopes has not meanwhile been determined.4
If pioneer Swedish emigrants were also the first to settle in their
areas in America, their status was high from the beginning and
their chances for social advancement good. The same was true of
156
T h e first plowing of a S w e d i s h i m m i g r a n t ' s land in S o u t h Dakota, around 1 9 1 0.
( C o u r t e s y of B e r t o n H a n s s o n , Nässjö.)
Swedes who, even if not the earliest settlers, came to rural districts
dominated by their countrymen or to cities where the Swedish
element was especially large. Research has likewise been able to
show good social mobility on the part of Swedish urban immigrants
w i t h valuable skills—for example, iron workers from the Bergslagen
district—who came to cities dominated by industries requiring their
experience, as in the case of Worcester, Massachusetts.5
D i r e c t migration, continuing over a period of years, from a particular
locality in Sweden to a specific place in A m e r i c a has also been shown to
have favored the social advancement of Swedish emigrants.6
The e m i g r a n t s ' choice of destination has often been demonstrated to
have been determined by social considerations. Thus the migration
of workers in the logging industry in northern Sweden to the
forested region? of the Midwest and of small farmers from the same
part of Sweden, who were bought out by the logging companies, to
Minnesota, as well as of iron workers from Värmland to Worcester,
Massachusetts, was connected with possibilities for realizing
particular social goals. Except in the case of Worcester, the
fulfillment of these hopes has not been investigated.7
Whether the emigrants constituted a positive selection with, on the
average, greater determination and physical stamina than other
157
Swedes, has received consideration. An investigation of emigration
from Alfta parish in Hälsingland has maintained that the emigrants
represented an intellectually positive selection. The basis for this
conclusion has been the judgment of the pastors in the annual
household examinations (husförhör) of their parishioners, and it
applies especially to the earliest emigration and to the age group
between 30 and 49 years. That such a positive selection should have
led to upward social mobility has been asserted. Even Alfta's
"upper stratum" of unpropertied emigrants during the years of
crop failure between 1866 and 1869 has, on the same grounds, been
depicted as "enterprising and alert."8
The positive view of the emigrants' intelligence which has here
been advanced has not been substantiated by American investiga­tions.
In response, the difficulties of devising fair tests for
immigrants have been pointed out and that poor test results
reflected their differing cultural backgrounds.9
Two areas of research in particular have meanwhile provided the
opportunity to study more closely the emigrants' social mobility.
These are examinations of r e t u r n migration and the intensive study
of selected Swedish-American populations.
Regarding the r e t u r n migrants, there is surely no ultimate answer
to the questions of whether it was the successful or the unsuccess­ful
who went back or whether in such cases the return was planned
or compelled by necessity. Still, a number of pertinent facts
concerning social mobility have come to light in this connection.
Various investigations have shown that the average sojourn in the
United States among the returnees was 4.1 years for Halmstad, 10.8
years for Långasjö, and less than 4 years for Sundsvall.'0 The
remigrants went back, generally, to the parishes from which they
had emigrated and fragmentary information is available on how,
following their return, they bought farms and established them­selves
at a higher social level than they had occupied before their
emigration, for example, in Kalkstad village on Öland or Långasjö
parish in Småland. Data on the capital brought back by returning
emigrants has also been obtained through local research: for
example, 26 former Swedish Americans living in Algutsrum
(Öland) in 1907 had come home with between 3,000 and 75,000
kronor each, for a total of around 400,000 k r o n o r ."
In contrast to this bright picture stands an investigation of return
migrants in Sundsvall area, where the effects of economic bad times
in America are clearly reflected in increased remigration, and the
158
few changes of occupation that occurred do not point toward any
notable social improvement This leads to the conclusion that what
was involved here was temporary labor migration generally not
leading to any social mobility.1 2 In this instance the late occurrence
of emigration from this region may be taken into account as a
reason for lack of social advancement. America by and after the
turn of the century no longer offered the immigrant free or
inexpensive land as a lever to social ascent. There was now a
c h r o n i c a l l y unstable labor market and economy, with periodic
recessions.
The social mobility of Swedish Americans in comparison with
other immigrants or with native-born Americans has likewise not
been investigated. Nor has social mobility between the generations
of Swedish Americans received more than scant attention. The
widely accepted view of the relatively easily assimilated Swedish
immigrants giving a good education to their children, who in turn
seldom followed up this advantage by rising above the level of the
factory foreman, has thus been neither confirmed nor disproven.
The intensive study of limited populations has meanwhile provided
a certain amount of information about social mobility among the
Swedish Americans. The good opportunities for social advance­ment
in the homogenous Swedish-American agricultural districts
have already been noted, as well as the similar situation in towns
like Worcester, Massachusetts. A study of Chicago—the city which
for a time was the largest "Swedish" city after Stockholm—has
shown that many Swedes established themselves as independent
entrepreneurs in the textile, lumber, and machinist trades, and that
advancement upward into the lower middle class was common, as
it was among the Swedes in Worcester. A relatively good theoretical
education among Swedish emigrants, particularly during the later
phase of the emigration, is considered to have played a large role."
Not only in Worcester but throughout Massachusetts Swedes
were particularly well represented in the skilled labor category, and
an American, study has shown that in Boston their proportion in
this group was greater than that of any other ethnic element,
including native-born Americans."
A n interesting group were the Swedish housemaids. Reports
from the United States gave them the hope, indeed the assurance,
of improving their social standing within the same occupation in
the new land. There they were better treated, had lighter duties,
and regular time off. One was "treated like a human being."15
159
" I n the c l o v e r ! " A p i c t u r e to impress the folks
back home. ( C o u r t e s y of t h e S w e d i s h E m i g r a nt
Institute, Växjö.)
Many also cherished the hope, after some years as housemaids, of
raising their social status through marriage. Whether such hopes
were realized is less certain. Once in America, they usually
married—following their time in domestic service—Scandinavian
immigrants whose assimilation to American society the former
housemaids, thanks to their familiarity with American customs,
doubtless facilitated. But aside from the change from housemaid to
housewife, marriage did not as rule imply any social change that
marriage would not have brought them in Sweden.
A question connected with social mobility among the emigrants
concerns the extent to which returning emigrants brought home
capital or those who did not return sent home money. Margot
Höjfors Hong addressed the subject in her dissertation from 1986
on the emigration from Öland, and even previously the transfer of
capital from the United States to Sweden, and vice versa, has been
touched upon in certain studies.
Research in Långasjö parish, Kronobergs län (Småland) has
provided a detailed analysis of 10 per cent of the returnees, which
160
showed that during their years in America they had, on the
average, sent home 3,580 kronor each and upon their return brought
home an average of 8,500 kronor apiece.16 The Swedish Emigration
Inquest ( E m i g r a t i o n s u t r e d n i n g e n ) of 1907-13 determined that
through postal money orders some 95 million kronor had been sent
home to Sweden from the United States between 1899 and 1907,
while 16 million kronor had gone in the opposite direction."
Sweden's published official statistics reveal that the money sent
via postal money orders from the United States between 1887 and
1930 amounted to 362 million kronor, whereas 52 million kronor had
been sent in the same manner to America. During the twenty years,
1886-1906, the money received through postal money orders in
Sweden amounted to three times the value of Swedish exports to
the United States.18
To the money sent by postal money order, which averaged out to
small individual sums—in 1891 to 360 kronor per money order-must
be added the undeterminable numbers of dollars which,
especially in October (the end of the salary year) and at Christmas,
were sent home directly in letters or were transferred through
banks.
Apart from various figures on the influx of capital on Öland,
Höjfors Hong cites contemporary sources which indicate that the
sums sent home " i n noteworthy degree" improved economic
conditions in the home localities. Helge Nelson, who reported on
Öland in the Emigration Inquest, had likewise spoken of "surpris­ingly
large sums" sent home by Öland emigrants in the United
States. What the money was used for has not been exactly
determined. A good part of it was surely sent to buy tickets to
America for family members still at home, even though the
purchase of prepaid tickets in America was widely practiced. That a
large part of the money served as "old-age pensions" for parents at
home is demonstrated by several local investigations carried out by
some 25 study circles in Halland. 1 9 Other studies indicate that the
money was sometimes invested in farms, which was followed up
when the Swedish-American who had sent it ultimately came
home with more dollars in his pocket.20
When it comes to the f u t u r e tasks of research concerning social
mobility among the emigrants, widely scattered source materials
and an ocean which lies between are not the great obstacle. The
Swedish-American materials relevant to the study of the emigrants'
status in America, including for example church books, the archives
161
of societies, census returns, and city directories, are largely
accessible on microfilm in Sweden, above all at the Emigrant
Institute in Växjö. The great difficulty is the immense American
population into which Swedish emigrants so easily disappeared. At
the moment of debarkation we lose contact with most of those
whom we are able to follow from their home localities, via their
ports of departure and transit through England, as far as their
American ports of arrival, through the Swedish church records and
passenger lists. A truly large-scale, individualized, comparative
investigation of the emigrants' social status in Sweden and the
United States would therefore face insuperable difficulties.
The research which has hitherto yielded the most information on
the social mobility of Swedish emigrants consists of the intensive
studies of relatively small and concentrated populations made up of
emigrants from limited districts in Sweden who migrated to specific
localities in America. Social mobility between generations of
Swedish Americans, in which the point of departure is the
immigrant in his first place of residence in the United States, can
also be analyzed through similar local intensive studies, even if the
geographically more mobile second and third generations are more
difficult to follow in the United States than in Sweden, with our
system of personal registration and parish records.
Intensive local studies based on rural areas in America have been
conducted by Hans Norman at Stockholm and Trade Lake,
Wisconsin; Robert C. Ostergren in Isanti County, Minnesota, and
Dalesburg, South Dakota; John G. Rice in Kandiyohi County,
Minnesota. Swedish-American urban communities have been
studied in Worcester by Hans Norman and in Chicago by Ulf
Beijbom.21
Related to Ostergren's and Rice's research is the study currently
being made by Anders MacGregor-Thunell at Gothenburg Univer­sity
of the Swedes in Travis and Williamson Counties, Texas, who
came primarily from Tveta härad, especially Barkaryd parish, in
Jönköpings län (Småland).
Intensive studies of Swedish urban enclaves in the United States
and Canada comprise a part of the present project, "Ethnic
Relations in American Cities," under the direction of Harald
Runblom of Uppsala University. The cities involved in this study
are Worcester, Massachusetts; Jamestown, New York; Rockford and
Moline, Illinois; Duluth, Minnesota; and Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Theoretically, the self-evident approach to dealing with the
problem of Swedish emigration and social mobility would naturally
162
be to determine the social status of the emigrant at different stages
of the migration cycle. The points of reference should be: 1. the
moment of emigration; 2. the first year in the United States; 3.
twenty years later in the United States; and 4. in the case of the
eventual return migrant, his or her status a few years after coming
home. Such an ideal investigation should also include generational
mobility by tracking the emigrants' children and grandchildren.
Such a study of the approximately one and a quarter million
Swedish emigrants, together with their American-born children, is
naturally impossible to carry out in its totality. It may perhaps be
pursued on a smaller scale through intensive studies of emigrants
from limited districts in Sweden to limited areas in America. But
investigations of this kind cannot be claimed to be representative of
the Swedish element in America taken as a whole. To find a
sampling of acceptable size and composition, which could give a
more general picture of social mobility among the Swedish
Americans, remains the unsolved problem for research.
Translated by H . ARNOLD BARTON
NOTES
'The preceeding quotations are given in my S w e d i s h E x o d u s , trans. Kermit B.
Westerberg (Carbondale, 111., 1979), 25,27, 32, 39. Cf. E m i g r a t i o n s u t r e d n i n g e n , 21 vols.
(Stockholm, 1908-13), VII: U t v a n d r a r n a s egna uppgifter (1908), 169, 252, 258; Robert L.
Wright, S w e d i s h E m i g r a n t Ballads (Lincoln, Nebr., 1965), 108.
2 Andres A . Svalestuen, "Nordisk emigrasjon—en komparativ oversikt," in E m i g r a ­t
i o n e n f r a N o r d e n i n d t i l 1 . V e r d e n s k r i g . R a p p o r t e r til det N o r d i s k e historikermøde i
København 1971, 9-12 a u g u s t (Copenhagen, 1971), 17-18; Lars-Göran Tedebrand,
Västernorrland och Nordamerika 1875-1913. U t v a n d r i n g och återinvandring (Uppsala,
1972), 127-83.
3Hans Norman, Från Bergslagen till N o r d a m e r i k a . S t u d i e r i migrationsmönster, social
rörlighet och demografisk struktur med utgångspunkt från Örebro län 1 8 5 1 - 1 9 1 5 (Uppsala,
1974), 76-82, 293; E n smålandssocken emigrerar. En bok om e m i g r a t i o n e n till A m e r i k a från
Långasjö socken i Kronobergs län (Växjö, 1967), p a s s i m.
"Margot Höjfors Hong, Ölänningar över h a v e n . U t v a n d r i n g från Öland 1 8 4 0 - 1 9 3 0 —
b a k g r u n d , förlopp, effekter (Uppsala, 1986), 105-6.
5Norman, Från Bergslagen till N o r d a m e r i k a , 211-87.
' I b i d . , 211-87; Robert C. Ostergren, A C o m m u n i t y Transplanted: The Trans-Atlantic
E x p e r i e n c e of a S w e d i s h I m m i g r a n t S e t t l e m e n t in the U p p e r M i d d l e West, 1 8 3 5 - 1 9 15
(Madison, Wise, 1988), 109-244; John C. Rice, Patterns of E t h n i c i t y in a M i n n e s o t a
County, 1 8 8 0 - 1 9 0 5 , Geographical Reports, No. 4 (Umeå: Department of Geography,
Umeå University, 1973).
'Norman, Från B e r g s l a g e n till N o r d a m e r i k a , 261-70; Tedebrand, Västernorrland och
N o r d a m e r i k a , 213.
163
"Kjell Söderberg, D e n första m a s s u t v a n d r i n g e n . E n studie av befolkningsrörlighet och
emigration utgående från Alfta socken i Hälsingland 1 8 4 6 - 1 8 9 5 (Stockholm, 1981), 97-99,
185-86; Kjell Söderberg, "Personal Characteristics and Selective Migration," in
A m e r i c a n S t u d i e s in S c a n d i n a v i a , 9 (1977), 127-53.9W. Peterson, Population (2nd. ed.,
London, 1969), 271.
'°Bo Kronborg & Thomas Nilsson, Stadsflyttare. I n d u s t r i a l i s e r i n g , migration och social
m o b i l i t e t med utgångspunkt frän H a l m s t a d 1 8 7 0 - 1 9 1 0 (Uppsala, 1975), 153; E n
smålandssocken e m i g r e r a r , 813; Tedebrand, Västernorrland och N o r d a m e r i k a , 25-52.
"Höjfors Hong, Ölänningar över h a v e n , 193, 201; E n smålandssocken e m i g r e r a r , 807-20.
12Tedebrand, Västernorrland och Nordamerika, 246-51.
1 3Ulf Beijbom, Swedes in C h i c a g o : A D e m o g r a p h i c a n d Social Study of the 1 8 4 6 - 1 8 80
I m m i g r a t i o n (Stockholm, 1971), 160-227.
1 4Norman,Från Bergslagen till N o r d a m e r i k a , 263. Cf. Stephen Thernstrom, "Yankees
and Immigrants: The Process of Mobility in Boston, 1880-1970" (unpublished
manuscript, Boston, 1971, at Dept. of History, Uppsala University), IV:33.
, s E m i g r a t i o n s u t r e d n i n g e n , VII:256; Ann-Sofie Kälvemark, "Utvandring
och självständighet. Några synpunkter på den kvinnliga emigrationen från
Sverige," H i s t o r i s k tidskrift (1983), 140-74; H. Arnold Barton, "Scandinavian
Immigrant Women's Encounter with America," S w e d i s h P i o n e e r Historical Q u a r t e r l y,
25 (1974), 37-42.
1 6En smålandssocken e m i g r e r a r , 817.
" E m i g r a t i o n s u t r e d n i n g e n , XIX (1910), 74.
, 8Höjfors Hong, Ölänningar över h a v e n , 205-6; The basis for these statistics is material
in Postverkets Arkiv, Stockholm, in which, among other things, postal money orders
from the United States are given for each post office during the period, 1886-1928.
Up until 1892, this is reported quarterly, thereafter monthly.
"Höjfors Hong, Ölänningar över h a v e n , 195, citing from "Landshövdingens femårs
berättelse för Kalmar län 1886-1890," in B i d r a g till Sveriges officiella statistik, H .
1 8 8 6 - 1 8 9 0 , K a l m a r län, 8; Helge Nelson, "Öland," in E m i g r a t i o n s u t r e d n i n g e n , VIII
(1909).
2 0Höjfors Hong, Ölänningar över h a v e n , 193; E n smålandssocken e m i g r e r a r , 807-20.
z ,Cf. the sources cited in Notes 6 and 13, above.
164

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ON EMIGRATION, SOCIAL MOBILITY,
AND THE TRANSFER OF CAPITAL
LARS LJUNGMARK
In the very idea of emigration lies the hope of a better life,
whether in a political, cultural, social, family, or economic sense. In
the debate on the background to the emigration that took place in
Sweden during the period of the great migration various of these
factors were brought to the fore.
"Thousands have gone into voluntary exile because of the
un-Christian intolerance and persecuting zeal of the Swedish
priesthood," claimed a man from Södermanland who had emi­grated
to Minnesota in 1882.
"His dream was to sail to that land out west, where no kings or
priests rule one's life as a pest." Thus the class background to
Petter's emigration was presented in the popular song, "Petter
Jönsson's Journey to America" ( " P e t t e r Jönssons resa till A m e r i k a ")
from 1872.
"Poor wages were not the only reason I left Sweden. The long
period of military service haunted me like a ghost and gave a dark
outlook for the future." In this way a man from Jämtland described
his decision to emigrate.
"The political immaturity of the period drove me here. . . . Here
everybody is entitled to his full share, is of legal age, and has a vote
at twenty-one," stated a man who had left Värmland in 1905,
making lack of a vote the reason for his determination to emigrate.1
Contemporary views of the importance of religious persecution,
class barriers, military conscription, and political disenfranchise¬
ment as factors behind the mass emigration from Sweden have not
been borne out by research. They have, at most, been credited as
contributory causes, compared with the altogether dominant
economic factors. The economic situation of the Swedish agricul­tural
and industrial labor force, and the social conditions that
resulted in both rural and urban areas, underlay the emigration,
together with the economic and social aspirations associated with
the great land across the Atlantic.
How, then, did things go for the emigrants? Did they achieve the
economic and social advancement they had hoped for? Or—as
155
many opponents of emigration foretold and perhaps hoped as
well—did things turn out badly for them? Is it possible that a biased
documentation, consisting of letters from America and the accounts
given by visiting Swedish Americans, has given us in Sweden a
false picture, one dominated by the Swedish Americans who
succeeded, while all those who were less fortunate or even
ultimately went under, remain invisible?
What follows here deals with the results of emigration research
concerning social mobility among the emigrants, or its inability to
reach firm conclusions in this regard. Since approximately one-fifth
of the emigrants eventually returned permanently to Sweden, it is
natural also to take up the situation of the remigrants after their
return. The transfer of capital from Swedish America to Sweden
likewise deserves consideration here.
The b a c k g r o u n d of d i s c o n t e n t to which research has so often
attributed emigration—most generally of an economic nature-inspired
in many the clear hope of social advancement in the
United States. The alleged characteristic attitude among the emigrants,
with its strong emphasis upon a higher standard of living, ought
likewise to have created a positive background for social success in
the new land, especially for those emigrating because the social
advancement they had gained in Sweden was threatened. In both
respects, however, research has only been able to confirm the desire
for social advancement among the emigrants; it has not in most
cases been able to determine the degree to which their hopes were
fulfilled.2
The social aspirations which the p i o n e e r s of t h e e m i g r a t i on
associated with emigration have been revealed, as well as the ways
in which these were met. Above all this was the case with farmers
who sold their farms in Sweden and obtained better farms in the
American Middle West. The part played by the Homestead Law of
1862, which made available to settlers 160 acres of free government
land, as the means of social advancement for poor Swedish
emigrants has also been studied.3
Other early emigrants with a strong desire for social improve­ment
who have been given attention include seamen from Öland and
migrants to t h e California gold fields. To what extent they realized their
hopes has not meanwhile been determined.4
If pioneer Swedish emigrants were also the first to settle in their
areas in America, their status was high from the beginning and
their chances for social advancement good. The same was true of
156
T h e first plowing of a S w e d i s h i m m i g r a n t ' s land in S o u t h Dakota, around 1 9 1 0.
( C o u r t e s y of B e r t o n H a n s s o n , Nässjö.)
Swedes who, even if not the earliest settlers, came to rural districts
dominated by their countrymen or to cities where the Swedish
element was especially large. Research has likewise been able to
show good social mobility on the part of Swedish urban immigrants
w i t h valuable skills—for example, iron workers from the Bergslagen
district—who came to cities dominated by industries requiring their
experience, as in the case of Worcester, Massachusetts.5
D i r e c t migration, continuing over a period of years, from a particular
locality in Sweden to a specific place in A m e r i c a has also been shown to
have favored the social advancement of Swedish emigrants.6
The e m i g r a n t s ' choice of destination has often been demonstrated to
have been determined by social considerations. Thus the migration
of workers in the logging industry in northern Sweden to the
forested region? of the Midwest and of small farmers from the same
part of Sweden, who were bought out by the logging companies, to
Minnesota, as well as of iron workers from Värmland to Worcester,
Massachusetts, was connected with possibilities for realizing
particular social goals. Except in the case of Worcester, the
fulfillment of these hopes has not been investigated.7
Whether the emigrants constituted a positive selection with, on the
average, greater determination and physical stamina than other
157
Swedes, has received consideration. An investigation of emigration
from Alfta parish in Hälsingland has maintained that the emigrants
represented an intellectually positive selection. The basis for this
conclusion has been the judgment of the pastors in the annual
household examinations (husförhör) of their parishioners, and it
applies especially to the earliest emigration and to the age group
between 30 and 49 years. That such a positive selection should have
led to upward social mobility has been asserted. Even Alfta's
"upper stratum" of unpropertied emigrants during the years of
crop failure between 1866 and 1869 has, on the same grounds, been
depicted as "enterprising and alert."8
The positive view of the emigrants' intelligence which has here
been advanced has not been substantiated by American investiga­tions.
In response, the difficulties of devising fair tests for
immigrants have been pointed out and that poor test results
reflected their differing cultural backgrounds.9
Two areas of research in particular have meanwhile provided the
opportunity to study more closely the emigrants' social mobility.
These are examinations of r e t u r n migration and the intensive study
of selected Swedish-American populations.
Regarding the r e t u r n migrants, there is surely no ultimate answer
to the questions of whether it was the successful or the unsuccess­ful
who went back or whether in such cases the return was planned
or compelled by necessity. Still, a number of pertinent facts
concerning social mobility have come to light in this connection.
Various investigations have shown that the average sojourn in the
United States among the returnees was 4.1 years for Halmstad, 10.8
years for Långasjö, and less than 4 years for Sundsvall.'0 The
remigrants went back, generally, to the parishes from which they
had emigrated and fragmentary information is available on how,
following their return, they bought farms and established them­selves
at a higher social level than they had occupied before their
emigration, for example, in Kalkstad village on Öland or Långasjö
parish in Småland. Data on the capital brought back by returning
emigrants has also been obtained through local research: for
example, 26 former Swedish Americans living in Algutsrum
(Öland) in 1907 had come home with between 3,000 and 75,000
kronor each, for a total of around 400,000 k r o n o r ."
In contrast to this bright picture stands an investigation of return
migrants in Sundsvall area, where the effects of economic bad times
in America are clearly reflected in increased remigration, and the
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few changes of occupation that occurred do not point toward any
notable social improvement This leads to the conclusion that what
was involved here was temporary labor migration generally not
leading to any social mobility.1 2 In this instance the late occurrence
of emigration from this region may be taken into account as a
reason for lack of social advancement. America by and after the
turn of the century no longer offered the immigrant free or
inexpensive land as a lever to social ascent. There was now a
c h r o n i c a l l y unstable labor market and economy, with periodic
recessions.
The social mobility of Swedish Americans in comparison with
other immigrants or with native-born Americans has likewise not
been investigated. Nor has social mobility between the generations
of Swedish Americans received more than scant attention. The
widely accepted view of the relatively easily assimilated Swedish
immigrants giving a good education to their children, who in turn
seldom followed up this advantage by rising above the level of the
factory foreman, has thus been neither confirmed nor disproven.
The intensive study of limited populations has meanwhile provided
a certain amount of information about social mobility among the
Swedish Americans. The good opportunities for social advance­ment
in the homogenous Swedish-American agricultural districts
have already been noted, as well as the similar situation in towns
like Worcester, Massachusetts. A study of Chicago—the city which
for a time was the largest "Swedish" city after Stockholm—has
shown that many Swedes established themselves as independent
entrepreneurs in the textile, lumber, and machinist trades, and that
advancement upward into the lower middle class was common, as
it was among the Swedes in Worcester. A relatively good theoretical
education among Swedish emigrants, particularly during the later
phase of the emigration, is considered to have played a large role."
Not only in Worcester but throughout Massachusetts Swedes
were particularly well represented in the skilled labor category, and
an American, study has shown that in Boston their proportion in
this group was greater than that of any other ethnic element,
including native-born Americans."
A n interesting group were the Swedish housemaids. Reports
from the United States gave them the hope, indeed the assurance,
of improving their social standing within the same occupation in
the new land. There they were better treated, had lighter duties,
and regular time off. One was "treated like a human being."15
159
" I n the c l o v e r ! " A p i c t u r e to impress the folks
back home. ( C o u r t e s y of t h e S w e d i s h E m i g r a nt
Institute, Växjö.)
Many also cherished the hope, after some years as housemaids, of
raising their social status through marriage. Whether such hopes
were realized is less certain. Once in America, they usually
married—following their time in domestic service—Scandinavian
immigrants whose assimilation to American society the former
housemaids, thanks to their familiarity with American customs,
doubtless facilitated. But aside from the change from housemaid to
housewife, marriage did not as rule imply any social change that
marriage would not have brought them in Sweden.
A question connected with social mobility among the emigrants
concerns the extent to which returning emigrants brought home
capital or those who did not return sent home money. Margot
Höjfors Hong addressed the subject in her dissertation from 1986
on the emigration from Öland, and even previously the transfer of
capital from the United States to Sweden, and vice versa, has been
touched upon in certain studies.
Research in Långasjö parish, Kronobergs län (Småland) has
provided a detailed analysis of 10 per cent of the returnees, which
160
showed that during their years in America they had, on the
average, sent home 3,580 kronor each and upon their return brought
home an average of 8,500 kronor apiece.16 The Swedish Emigration
Inquest ( E m i g r a t i o n s u t r e d n i n g e n ) of 1907-13 determined that
through postal money orders some 95 million kronor had been sent
home to Sweden from the United States between 1899 and 1907,
while 16 million kronor had gone in the opposite direction."
Sweden's published official statistics reveal that the money sent
via postal money orders from the United States between 1887 and
1930 amounted to 362 million kronor, whereas 52 million kronor had
been sent in the same manner to America. During the twenty years,
1886-1906, the money received through postal money orders in
Sweden amounted to three times the value of Swedish exports to
the United States.18
To the money sent by postal money order, which averaged out to
small individual sums—in 1891 to 360 kronor per money order-must
be added the undeterminable numbers of dollars which,
especially in October (the end of the salary year) and at Christmas,
were sent home directly in letters or were transferred through
banks.
Apart from various figures on the influx of capital on Öland,
Höjfors Hong cites contemporary sources which indicate that the
sums sent home " i n noteworthy degree" improved economic
conditions in the home localities. Helge Nelson, who reported on
Öland in the Emigration Inquest, had likewise spoken of "surpris­ingly
large sums" sent home by Öland emigrants in the United
States. What the money was used for has not been exactly
determined. A good part of it was surely sent to buy tickets to
America for family members still at home, even though the
purchase of prepaid tickets in America was widely practiced. That a
large part of the money served as "old-age pensions" for parents at
home is demonstrated by several local investigations carried out by
some 25 study circles in Halland. 1 9 Other studies indicate that the
money was sometimes invested in farms, which was followed up
when the Swedish-American who had sent it ultimately came
home with more dollars in his pocket.20
When it comes to the f u t u r e tasks of research concerning social
mobility among the emigrants, widely scattered source materials
and an ocean which lies between are not the great obstacle. The
Swedish-American materials relevant to the study of the emigrants'
status in America, including for example church books, the archives
161
of societies, census returns, and city directories, are largely
accessible on microfilm in Sweden, above all at the Emigrant
Institute in Växjö. The great difficulty is the immense American
population into which Swedish emigrants so easily disappeared. At
the moment of debarkation we lose contact with most of those
whom we are able to follow from their home localities, via their
ports of departure and transit through England, as far as their
American ports of arrival, through the Swedish church records and
passenger lists. A truly large-scale, individualized, comparative
investigation of the emigrants' social status in Sweden and the
United States would therefore face insuperable difficulties.
The research which has hitherto yielded the most information on
the social mobility of Swedish emigrants consists of the intensive
studies of relatively small and concentrated populations made up of
emigrants from limited districts in Sweden who migrated to specific
localities in America. Social mobility between generations of
Swedish Americans, in which the point of departure is the
immigrant in his first place of residence in the United States, can
also be analyzed through similar local intensive studies, even if the
geographically more mobile second and third generations are more
difficult to follow in the United States than in Sweden, with our
system of personal registration and parish records.
Intensive local studies based on rural areas in America have been
conducted by Hans Norman at Stockholm and Trade Lake,
Wisconsin; Robert C. Ostergren in Isanti County, Minnesota, and
Dalesburg, South Dakota; John G. Rice in Kandiyohi County,
Minnesota. Swedish-American urban communities have been
studied in Worcester by Hans Norman and in Chicago by Ulf
Beijbom.21
Related to Ostergren's and Rice's research is the study currently
being made by Anders MacGregor-Thunell at Gothenburg Univer­sity
of the Swedes in Travis and Williamson Counties, Texas, who
came primarily from Tveta härad, especially Barkaryd parish, in
Jönköpings län (Småland).
Intensive studies of Swedish urban enclaves in the United States
and Canada comprise a part of the present project, "Ethnic
Relations in American Cities," under the direction of Harald
Runblom of Uppsala University. The cities involved in this study
are Worcester, Massachusetts; Jamestown, New York; Rockford and
Moline, Illinois; Duluth, Minnesota; and Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Theoretically, the self-evident approach to dealing with the
problem of Swedish emigration and social mobility would naturally
162
be to determine the social status of the emigrant at different stages
of the migration cycle. The points of reference should be: 1. the
moment of emigration; 2. the first year in the United States; 3.
twenty years later in the United States; and 4. in the case of the
eventual return migrant, his or her status a few years after coming
home. Such an ideal investigation should also include generational
mobility by tracking the emigrants' children and grandchildren.
Such a study of the approximately one and a quarter million
Swedish emigrants, together with their American-born children, is
naturally impossible to carry out in its totality. It may perhaps be
pursued on a smaller scale through intensive studies of emigrants
from limited districts in Sweden to limited areas in America. But
investigations of this kind cannot be claimed to be representative of
the Swedish element in America taken as a whole. To find a
sampling of acceptable size and composition, which could give a
more general picture of social mobility among the Swedish
Americans, remains the unsolved problem for research.
Translated by H . ARNOLD BARTON
NOTES
'The preceeding quotations are given in my S w e d i s h E x o d u s , trans. Kermit B.
Westerberg (Carbondale, 111., 1979), 25,27, 32, 39. Cf. E m i g r a t i o n s u t r e d n i n g e n , 21 vols.
(Stockholm, 1908-13), VII: U t v a n d r a r n a s egna uppgifter (1908), 169, 252, 258; Robert L.
Wright, S w e d i s h E m i g r a n t Ballads (Lincoln, Nebr., 1965), 108.
2 Andres A . Svalestuen, "Nordisk emigrasjon—en komparativ oversikt," in E m i g r a ­t
i o n e n f r a N o r d e n i n d t i l 1 . V e r d e n s k r i g . R a p p o r t e r til det N o r d i s k e historikermøde i
København 1971, 9-12 a u g u s t (Copenhagen, 1971), 17-18; Lars-Göran Tedebrand,
Västernorrland och Nordamerika 1875-1913. U t v a n d r i n g och återinvandring (Uppsala,
1972), 127-83.
3Hans Norman, Från Bergslagen till N o r d a m e r i k a . S t u d i e r i migrationsmönster, social
rörlighet och demografisk struktur med utgångspunkt från Örebro län 1 8 5 1 - 1 9 1 5 (Uppsala,
1974), 76-82, 293; E n smålandssocken emigrerar. En bok om e m i g r a t i o n e n till A m e r i k a från
Långasjö socken i Kronobergs län (Växjö, 1967), p a s s i m.
"Margot Höjfors Hong, Ölänningar över h a v e n . U t v a n d r i n g från Öland 1 8 4 0 - 1 9 3 0 —
b a k g r u n d , förlopp, effekter (Uppsala, 1986), 105-6.
5Norman, Från Bergslagen till N o r d a m e r i k a , 211-87.
' I b i d . , 211-87; Robert C. Ostergren, A C o m m u n i t y Transplanted: The Trans-Atlantic
E x p e r i e n c e of a S w e d i s h I m m i g r a n t S e t t l e m e n t in the U p p e r M i d d l e West, 1 8 3 5 - 1 9 15
(Madison, Wise, 1988), 109-244; John C. Rice, Patterns of E t h n i c i t y in a M i n n e s o t a
County, 1 8 8 0 - 1 9 0 5 , Geographical Reports, No. 4 (Umeå: Department of Geography,
Umeå University, 1973).
'Norman, Från B e r g s l a g e n till N o r d a m e r i k a , 261-70; Tedebrand, Västernorrland och
N o r d a m e r i k a , 213.
163
"Kjell Söderberg, D e n första m a s s u t v a n d r i n g e n . E n studie av befolkningsrörlighet och
emigration utgående från Alfta socken i Hälsingland 1 8 4 6 - 1 8 9 5 (Stockholm, 1981), 97-99,
185-86; Kjell Söderberg, "Personal Characteristics and Selective Migration," in
A m e r i c a n S t u d i e s in S c a n d i n a v i a , 9 (1977), 127-53.9W. Peterson, Population (2nd. ed.,
London, 1969), 271.
'°Bo Kronborg & Thomas Nilsson, Stadsflyttare. I n d u s t r i a l i s e r i n g , migration och social
m o b i l i t e t med utgångspunkt frän H a l m s t a d 1 8 7 0 - 1 9 1 0 (Uppsala, 1975), 153; E n
smålandssocken e m i g r e r a r , 813; Tedebrand, Västernorrland och N o r d a m e r i k a , 25-52.
"Höjfors Hong, Ölänningar över h a v e n , 193, 201; E n smålandssocken e m i g r e r a r , 807-20.
12Tedebrand, Västernorrland och Nordamerika, 246-51.
1 3Ulf Beijbom, Swedes in C h i c a g o : A D e m o g r a p h i c a n d Social Study of the 1 8 4 6 - 1 8 80
I m m i g r a t i o n (Stockholm, 1971), 160-227.
1 4Norman,Från Bergslagen till N o r d a m e r i k a , 263. Cf. Stephen Thernstrom, "Yankees
and Immigrants: The Process of Mobility in Boston, 1880-1970" (unpublished
manuscript, Boston, 1971, at Dept. of History, Uppsala University), IV:33.
, s E m i g r a t i o n s u t r e d n i n g e n , VII:256; Ann-Sofie Kälvemark, "Utvandring
och självständighet. Några synpunkter på den kvinnliga emigrationen från
Sverige," H i s t o r i s k tidskrift (1983), 140-74; H. Arnold Barton, "Scandinavian
Immigrant Women's Encounter with America," S w e d i s h P i o n e e r Historical Q u a r t e r l y,
25 (1974), 37-42.
1 6En smålandssocken e m i g r e r a r , 817.
" E m i g r a t i o n s u t r e d n i n g e n , XIX (1910), 74.
, 8Höjfors Hong, Ölänningar över h a v e n , 205-6; The basis for these statistics is material
in Postverkets Arkiv, Stockholm, in which, among other things, postal money orders
from the United States are given for each post office during the period, 1886-1928.
Up until 1892, this is reported quarterly, thereafter monthly.
"Höjfors Hong, Ölänningar över h a v e n , 195, citing from "Landshövdingens femårs
berättelse för Kalmar län 1886-1890," in B i d r a g till Sveriges officiella statistik, H .
1 8 8 6 - 1 8 9 0 , K a l m a r län, 8; Helge Nelson, "Öland," in E m i g r a t i o n s u t r e d n i n g e n , VIII
(1909).
2 0Höjfors Hong, Ölänningar över h a v e n , 193; E n smålandssocken e m i g r e r a r , 807-20.
z ,Cf. the sources cited in Notes 6 and 13, above.
164